Murdered at Little River

• Reuben Sims

The following dispatch was sent to the Montgomery Advertiser from Bay Minette Wednesday.

C. D. Cole, a prominent merchant and assistant postmaster at Little River was foully murdered last night while on his way home from the store the object of the murderers being to secure what money he had on his person.

The crime was discovered early this morning. Mr. Cole was a highly esteemed citizen and not an enemy in the world.

Two negroes, Robert Tate and Rube Sims, who had been seen at the store late last night, were suspected, and a large crowd of citizens went at once to their homes and placed the negroes under arrest.

Tate confessed and made a clean brest of the whole affair. The scene of the crime is in the extreme northern part of Baldwin county and is just across the line from Monroe County.

It is reported that the negroes have been lynched.

News ot the crime reached here about 11 o’clock this morning, and Sheriff Armstrong and two deputies left at once for the scene. They proposed to get the guilty persons, either for murder or lynching.

Little River, is about twenty-eight miles from this place and is in a remote section of the country and not accessable by telegraph or telephone.

“Murdered at Little River.” The Atmore Record (Atmore, AL), April 22, 1904.